Re: [Paddlewise] Helmet Stowage/PFD

On Mon, Apr 22, 2002 at 11:58:33PM -0400, KiAyker_at_aol.com wrote:
>    Whether or not I wear my pfd should be MY CHOICE! 

Yes, in a perfect world, it should and it would be.

But we don't live there, for two reasons: first, safety issues are almost
never quite so cut-and-dry, and second, we live in a complex legal climate.

I'll leave that second point alone for now and talk about the first:

It's a matter of degree, and a matter of judgement.  My judgement is
that there's no downside to wearing one 100% of the time, so that's
what I do, and what I encourage others to do.  It's a matter of risk
management, which in turn is a matter of the analysis of a complex set
of overlapping probabilities.  Having read extensively (e.g. Charlie
Walbridge's River Safety Task Force reports, many years of mailing lists
and Usenet and so on) and had my own experiences, some good, some bad,
I've made a judgement call that I'm comfortable with.  YMMV.

It's also a matter of impact on others: I don't want to see my paddling
partners risk their lives coming after me because I was stupid...so I try
hard not to be stupid [1].  I also don't want to see those who will come after
me barred from my favorite rivers because I did something foolish.  And
more selfishly, I really don't want to have to go after someone who has
done something stupid -- I have and I will, but I don't like it much.

> Isn't requiring me to wear my pfd in order to paddle 
> with you right along the same lines as the French stomping on my rights?

Perhaps.  But consider, for example, that in West Virginia, it is a state
law that one must wear a PFD at all times while on the river and must wear
a helmet in anything rated above class III.  Why?  Well, because, among
other things, those people who work in the ERs, police offices, park
service, etc., would really prefer not to have to spend their time engaged
in dangerous rescue/recovery operations, and their judgement -- which
I personally think is sound -- is that these regulations mitigate some
portion of the risk.  Not all: they're not a panacea, and they're not designed
to be.  They're designed to reduce risk, not eliminate it.  They seem to
work, and while some folks may think it's onerous to be required to wear
a PFD and a helmet, I think running something like the Upper Gauley
without both would be extremely dangerous, bordering on suicidal.

It's not perfect: people still die there, including ones wearing PFDs
and helmets.  But having spent summer vacations paddling there for over
20 years, I have no doubt whatsoever that the toll would be MUCH higher
were it not for those regulations. [2]

---Rsk

[1] That doesn't just include wearing a PFD.  That includes not running
rivers I'm unprepared for, or walking big nasty drops if I'm having
an off day, or taking the sneak route instead of the hero route if I'm
getting tired and so on.  All of these are risk management.  None are
guarantees.

[2] I've been running the Lehigh in PA for about ten years.  Never so
much as flipped, let alone come out of my boat.  But I did last fall:
I was run over by a raft while trying to rescue to a kayaker who'd
flipped and swam.  I got my butt kicked, sandwiched between the raft
and the river bottom while going through a class II-III drop.  The PFD and
helmet spared me some of the beating, so even though in all those years
I'd never really needed them before, I was really glad I had them.
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